of past sins and new hope
by wordcatchers
Summary: The Fire Lord visits her father on Ember Island, informing him of new airbenders showing up all over the world, and Zuko remembers Aang in snapshots of letters and memories. (Notice: this oneshot contains slash [kissing].)


**Author's Note:** This is my first Zukaang fic, so please pardon any OOC character qualities, but feel free to suggest how to improve characterization if you want which I can take into mind when I write any more Zukaang. This takes place in three different times: during the current Legend of Korra season, when Aang is around thirty (Zuko thirty-four), and when Aang is twenty-two (Zuko twenty-six).

* * *

_New... airbenders? _

"I... But...," he sighed and placed a hand to his forehead. _I'm not losing my hearing, am I? _He looked at the Fire Lord and steepled his hands against his lips. "Please repeat what you just said."

His daughter pursed her lips for an instant, but said it all again, "We've gotten various reports... countless, honestly, that there are new airbenders appearing in the world, namely in the Earth Kingdom. I just... wanted to tell you myself. Considering..." she trailed off, making a noncommittal gesture with her hand.

Zuko bowed his head and shut his eyes for several moments.

"Dad?"

He lifted them to his daughter again, "Thank you. You... you may go."

She eyed him warily, but left him as he she knew he would come for her when it had all... sunken in. The Fire Lord could scarcely imagine what was going through her father's mind.

When his daughter had left, he spoke to the guards outside of his home on Ember Island, asking them to not disturb him for at least another hour. With that sort of peace, Zuko went back inside and searched through the letters he and Avatar Aang had corresponded by occasionally for so many years, when neither could meet in person.

His fingers flipped through the dates until a familiar year stuck out like a sore thumb - his thirty-fourth year, and Aang's thirtieth. Katara had been pregnant with Tenzin at the time.

_Zuko,_

_Or shall I say flameo, Hotman!_

_As you already know, Katara is with our third child. It still feels odd sometimes, having children. "Our" war is far behind us, but some days... it doesn't feel like so much time has passed. Though, when I visit Republic City, I know. I... definitely know. Things are changing! It's amazing, really... more and more technological improvements, inventions... I just hope that Air Temple Island will always remind people of how beautiful nature is. The simplicity and beauty of it, and the peace that comes with it._

_Not as if our lives have ever been simple! I'm smiling as I write this, you know. I miss speaking with you... in person, I mean._

_Write back soon and let me know how things are in the Fire Nation, Mr. Fire Lord!_

_Yours,_

_Aang_

Zuko grinned, feeling the age of his skin as he did. He sat Aang's letter down beside him and picked up his reply letter.

_Aang,_

_Or, shall I say, Avatar Aang? No, no worries, I know that's just reserved for formal occasions when we have to pretend like we are utterly dignified adults._

_Give Katara my well wishes for an easy pregnancy, and congratulations on your third child! I know I hope for an airbender in your family with this one. Your culture and your style of bending need to live on... after you. I know we've talked of this before, but I am still sometimes distressed by what my nation did to the Air Nomads. I will always be sorry on behalf of the Fire Nation. Though, I know you already know that, and... I'm repeating old history here, aren't I? I apologize, though I have always been somewhat of a "broody" firebender, anyway._

_My nation is doing well, Aang. Not much has changed since your last visit a year ago. When do you plan on visiting again, at that? I at least want to be introduced to your youngest before he or she is a year old!_

_Yours, truly,_

_Zuko_

'Utterly dignified adults.' Zuko placed the letters back in his collection and stifled a snort. They had never honestly been dignified, at least not when alone, free from the public eye and guards.

Looking at these letters, though, also reminded me of that 'old history' that he had mentioned. Zuko held a small pool of flames within the palm of his right hand, gazing into it until he saw Aang again, at twenty-two, in a haze. He smiled and extinguished the flame, hardly noticing when he laid down on the bed he had been sitting on. He didn't even realize when he had shut his eyes.

* * *

"Zuko!"

But that, _that_ voice could wake any Fire Lord up. Especially this one.

Zuko shot up in his chambers and blearily surveyed the area until a ball of air - and the airbender floating atop of it - came down to his eye level. Aang grinned at him and pinched playfully at the Fire Lord's cheek, appearing nowhere near all of his twenty-two years. His face still shone like the twelve-year-old he had once hunted, and he couldn't help but laugh with his friend.

"Ten years... and you're still the same fun-loving Aang." Zuko couldn't even be mad at the Avatar for interrupting his sleep, though...

"And, I mean, I love this unexpected visit, but... Why are you here at... one in the morning? You're lucky that Mai is off visiting with her parents for the week, or you would have had a fight on your hands."

"I... uh... yeah! I would have!" But Aang seemed preoccupied as he settled himself on the bed covers, legs crossed and a hand rubbing at the back of his neck.

"I... why I'm here... I, well..."

"Aang..."

The Avatar looked away and then back, then... "KATARA'S _PREGNANT_, ZUKO! _PREGNANT!_ I don't know what to do, how to help her... why..."

"Of course you know why."

"Oh. Yeah," Aang said, at least having the dignity to blush. "But... we're going to have a CHILD, Zuko! A _BABY!_"

"You sound distressed," he said, his tone nonchalant, perhaps a bit disgruntled, but his face anything but. His hand made its way over to Aang's knee, placing itself there with a solid warmth. Aang shared a look with him, eyes pleading for some kind of reassurance.

"Aang... you're going to be a _great _father."

"But I never had..."

"You had Monk Gyatso, did you not? Wasn't he like a father to you?"

Aang colored again and rubbed at his nose with the back of a hand, nodding and glancing down at Zuko's hand, still warming his knee. It was... nice. This. Even if Zuko's hair was untidy from sleep, and he looked like he could use another several hours.

"I'm sorry for disturbing your sleep... Fire Lord."

Zuko's eyes widened, "Aang. It's just Zuko... here." He shifted his eyes to all of what Aang's tattoos currently showed on his body, from his head to his arms to his bare and (kind of) dirty feet. His mind suddenly connected it all... the implications of any pregnancies Katara would have with Aang.

He bowed his head sharply and swallowed hard, hardly able to meet Aang's eyes as he said, "I will hope for another airbender, Aang. I know, though... that _nothing_ can ever undo the scar upon my nation for committing genocide on your people."

He felt Aang's hand cup his chin and raise his face up to meet the airbender's. The _Avatar's_. Aang's grey eyes bore into his own, searching, glancing around the burn scar that defined the left side of his face.

"I won't mind if this child isn't an airbender, Zuko. There will be more children, and I will love this one just the same as any airbender child Katara has, because they are _ours_. But Zuko... do not blame yourself on behalf of your ancestors and the way _they _commanded your people."

Zuko cracked a pained smile, "The sins of the ancestors are the sins of their descendants. My people still don't completely _trust _me, Aang. They look at me, and they see Fire Lord Ozai's features; only this scar," -he jabbed a finger towards the left hemisphere of his face- "defines me as Fire Lord _Zuko_. They still... you should see their _eyes_, Aang. The past is not let go of so easily, no matter what I do.

"They... they must fear I have it in me to change into my father, to... to _ruin_ this nation again and its image, as if anything could _fix_ what nearly over a hundred years did to the great Fire Nation. Even though I'm trying to be the _opposite_ of my father... I know... I know I still have good and evil warring inside me. Like _always_."

Zuko felt Aang's fingers weave a gentle path through his hair, still disheveled from the tossing and turnings of his sleep. Zuko groaned, half from being angry at himself, and half because of how amazingly affectionate Aang was - not that he _disliked _the affection, though.

"We all have good and evil inside of us, Zuko," Aang said, continuing to thread his fingers through the firebender's hair. "But I know you. You are far more good than evil... Actually, I believe you released most of your 'evil' when you were trying to capture me." Aang then laughed, "Remember that?"

"I was a misguided idiot."

"You're still an idiot, Zuko," Aang half-teased him. "But you're no longer misguided, save for when it comes to yourself... sometimes." Aang's words grew more and more quiet, more hushed, until Zuko had to look at the Avatar's face to hear it all. And Aang's _face_... he had scarcely seen the man look at him so intimately, so...

"_Aang._"

The airbender smiled and grasped Zuko's face tenderly with his hands, drawing himself closer until his lips were upon the Fire Lord's own. It was soft and chaste, and as quick as the wind the Avatar bended. It was over before Zuko could fully comprehend the moment.

"W-What was..." but Aang placed a finger over his lips.

"I still belong to Katara, you to Mai. But do you know that dragons are made of air and fire?"

"I..." Zuko started, but nearly choked on his own words. He didn't know what to say. He... he had liked that. But it wasn't the same with Mai. Their was a different kiss, a different...

"You're _good_, Zuko. Trust me, I'm the Avatar. And dragons are made of air and fire, like I said. They are beings made up of two contradictory elements - maybe not so much as air and earth, but all the same. And even with the two elements inside of them, they combine to make one of the majestic creatures I've ever seen. They're _perfect _together, just like _we _are as friends. Born through fire, we were, but we came out better from it.

"And that, that is why I want you to believe me when I say that you are one of the best people I have _ever _known, and the sins of your fathers are not _yours _to bear. We can only... accept what happened, and move on from there. At least, that's what helped me. And becoming friends with _you_ solidified my forgiveness towards the Fire Nation."

"You... you forgive us?" Zuko asked, his voice cracking from not using it for the past several minutes. But also for another reason.

"I love you, Zuko, and your people."

..._Love. That's it._

_A different kind of love, beautiful all the same._

* * *

When the former Fire Lord woke, he remembered how Aang had stayed the night back then, yet he had only known it by the letter left by the Avatar the next morning, and another kiss that Zuko never quite knew if it had been from a dream or not.

As he briefly touched his lips now with two fingers, though, he felt it.

Airbending was truly returning to the world.


End file.
